Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard is a classic tale of family, wealth and the foreboding changes that come with progress, so of course it is ripe for adaptation, however this particular production just doesn’t hit the mark.
The family estate is in ruin, generations cast to the wind, living off the fumes of a once stoic dynasty but the reality of the future is coming crashing down on them. Faced with the reality of loss, agreements are hastily made to maintain the status quo but eventually lead to devastating losses.
Gary Owen’s adaptation moves the world to the Welsh countryside for reasons that are never quite made clear. Owen’s writing doesn’t fall short but the overwrought cliche romantic dialogue leaves the characters bumbling around the space and wistfully staring into the ether.
The stacks within the work are minuscule, with much of that steaming from the lack of explanation or deeper connection to the place in which the story has been moved to.
Anthony Skuse’s direction grounds the work in a way that allows the story to unfold as it should, characters laugh, and mourn, and argue, and love, serving the story but essentially becoming a work directed by numbers.
The work lacks a central focus or a creative drive, leaving the core of the script to do all the work and the production’s impressively detailed designs to add any kind of unique interest.
Amelia Parsonson, Charles Mayer, Deborah Galanos, Dorje Swallow, James Smithers, Jane Angharad, and Talia Benatar are an eclectic ensemble with varying degrees of comedic timing and dramatic depth.
Each performer seems to be in a different production, either playing for laughs or a realism verging on boredom. A distinct lack of character work adds to bafflingly wooden relationships between the characters and extremely frustrating lack of attention to articulation and diction.
James Smithers set design couldn’t be more impressive – luxuriously detailed with minute touches of elegance and despair. Topaz Marlay-Cole’s lighting and Johnny Yang’s sound designs carry the emotional weight of the work and allow audiences to ebb and flow with the rhythms of the story.
Adapting a work like The Cherry Orchard provides an opportunity to find a voice and focal point lurking within the dramaturgical themes, but sadly in this case, it seems that none were to be found.
The Cherry Orchard
The Old Fitz Theatre, 129 Dowling Street, Woolloomooloo (Sydney)
Performance: Tuesday 13 August 2024
Season continues to 24 August 2024
Information and Bookings: www.oldfitztheatre.com.au
Image: The Cherry Orchard – photo by Braiden Toko
Review: Gavin Roach